767.68119 P/44: Telegram
The Special Mission at Lausanne to the Secretary of State
[Received 3 a.m.]
384. Yesterday morning there was a private meeting of the British, French, and Italian representatives with Ismet at which they provisionally agreed upon a formula for a judicial declaration which they telegraphed to their respective Governments for instructions. I have confidentially received the text of this formula. It is substantially the same as the Rumbold formula18 transmitted in our despatch 2–A of April 30, except for the omission of the second sentence of the third paragraph and all of the fifth paragraph, and the substitution of the following for the fourth paragraph:19 [Page 1013]
“These legal counsellors will be attached to the Ministry of Justice and will have their headquarters, some in the city of Constantinople and others in the city of Smyrna. They will participate in the labors of the legislative commissions and it will be their duty to follow, without interfering with the performance of the duties of magistrates, the functioning of Turkish civil, commercial, and penal jurisdiction, to address to the Minister of Justice all reports which they may judge necessary; they will be qualified to receive all complaints which may arise either from the administration of civil, commercial, or penal justice or from the execution of penalties or the application of the law, with the duty to report to the Minister of Justice, in order to ensure the strict observance of Turkish legislation.
They will also be qualified to receive complaints which may arise in connection with domiciliary visits, searches or arrests; these measures, on the other hand, in the judicial district of Constantinople and Smyrna, being brought without delay, when they are effected, to the knowledge of the legal counsellor by the local representative of the Minister of Justice. This magistrate will, in such cases, be qualified to correspond directly with the legal counsellor.”